ArticleHarm reduction journal2023
Preloading with drugs before entry to the nighttime entertainment district: presentation, intoxication rates, and effects of police presence during assessment.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of literature on substance use in nightlife settings utilizingDrug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Review
- The theory of preloading: A cognitive-behavioural motivational model.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPast research has either focused on alcohol or drug preloading before a night out, but not on the interaction between them. With increased risks of harm through interaction effects, we wished to build upon previous research in this area. We sought to determine who drug preloads, why do people engage in this practice, what drug/s are people using, and how inebriated they are as they enter the NED. Additionally, we examined what impact varying levels of police presence has on the collections of sensitive data in this context.
methodsWe captured estimates of drug and alcohol preloading from 4723 people entering nighttime entertainment districts (NEDs) in Queensland, Australia. Data collection occurred under three varying conditions of police presence (i.e., no police present, police present but not engaging with participants, and police engaging with participants).
resultsPeople who admitted to preloading drugs were found to be younger in age than non-drug admitters, more likely to be male than female, use one type of drug (mostly stimulants) rather than multiple (if we exclude alcohol), significantly more intoxicated upon arrival, and more subjectively affected from their use of alcohol and drugs as Breath Approximated Alcohol Concertation levels increased. People were more likely to admit having used drugs in the absence of police, but this had only a small effect.
conclusionsPeople who drug preload are a vulnerable subset of the youth population that is susceptible to experiencing harms in this context. As they drink more alcohol, they experience higher affects than those who do not report to also take drugs. Police engagement through service rather than force may mitigate some risks. Further enquiry is needed to better understand those who engage in this practice and to have quick, cheap, objective tests of what drugs these people are using.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.